The food drops carrying all their essential gear, food and other supplies went out last week, much to the delight of many mushers.

"It's the hardest part, so it feels good to have it done," said Lance Mackey of Kasilof.

Mackey prepared his food drops with his brother Jason Mackey and Hugh Neff, a musher down from Nenana.

"With three teams it was a lot of work. It's easy to put together a food drop for a 200- or 300-mile race, but for Iditarod you've got to be ready for it all," Lance Mackey said.

The three mushers then rented a U-Haul and drove their food drops two at 1,800 pounds and one at 1,500 pounds to Anchorage.

Ninilchik musher Tim Osmar was equally happy to have his food drops out of the way.

"I can breathe easy now," said Osmar, who with the help of family and friends packed his food drops at Carlile Transportation Systems in Kenai.

"It was great. Carlile let us use their shop to pack it and then they hauled it up there. It took two hours and 42 minutes (to pack) and weighed 2,200 pounds," Osmar said.

With food drops sent out, mushers focused on their next task taking their teams in for their mandatory blood work, electrocardiograms, microchipping and other preliminary veterinary checks.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Soldotna Animal Hospital extended its facility to be used by the Iditarod technicians carrying out the prerace veterinary checks.

"It's not my favorite thing, but it's something everyone's gotta do," said Osmar. "I would rather use this time for training, but in the big picture, it's necessary because if there was something wrong with a dog you would want to know about it."

Associated Press